The cashier demonstrated exactly how not to talk — and exactly how not to treat a customer — at work:

"I was in the check-out line at the Target in [redacted] on Friday night, 11-30-12, around 8:30pm.

The cashier told the customer in front of me that something was 'SO GAY.'

As a 30-year-old gay man I found that comment to be completely inappropriate. I chimed in and told the cashier, [B], that his remark was rude, uncalled for, inappropriate, passé, ignorant, and not okay. He immediately said back that he said it 'all the time' and 'it was not a big deal' and 'he uses it a lot.' In the moment I did not [know] what else to do or say.

When [B] did ring me up he asked me 'why I wasn't buying any nail polish' which was clearly a homophobic insult. I was shocked and upset. My purchase was complete and I left."

"In this case, the management of the individual store were responsible for hiring and training that employee, and may have skipped the 'no anti-gay slurs at the checkout counter' module," wrote Laura Northrop at the Consumerist.

In the end, the Target location handled the situation quite well. After getting the runaround from corporate, the customer called the store and met with the manager, who seemed "embarrassed and genuinely upset." She mailed him a gift card.